Pitcher Partners welcomes six new partners to its national network

Pitcher Partners has bolstered its executive leadership across its national network with the appointment of Bruce Grieve, Levi Holdsworth, Elizabeth Jools, Juliana Kee,  Jack Mackintosh and Alex Pollock as Partners. 

Bruce Grieve — Private Wealth, Pitcher Partners Newcastle and Hunter

Bruce Grieve has been appointed as Partner in the Private Wealth practice at Pitcher Partners Newcastle and Hunter, bringing more than two decades of experience in financial planning across South Africa and Australia.  

Having spent 16 years building and leading an advisory practice in South Africa before relocating to Australia eight years ago, Mr Grieve found his way to Newcastle and to Pitcher Partners somewhat by chance, joining the firm two years ago after what he describes as an immediately obvious cultural fit. 

His path into financial planning was similarly unplanned. Growing up with both parents and a stepfather who were accountants, Mr Grieve was determined to chart a different course, only to find that a commerce degree and a genuine enthusiasm for investments and working with people led him, almost inevitably, into an advisory career. 

Working primarily with high-net-worth individuals and family groups who are approaching or already in retirement, Mr Grieve finds that the complexity of the current environment, from budgets and geopolitical uncertainty through to the rise of artificial intelligence, rarely changes the fundamental question his clients are asking. 

“Whether it is the Federal budget, geopolitical uncertainty or the rise of AI, the question our clients are really asking tends to be the same: am I going to be okay? Can I still afford the life I want?” Mr Grieve said.  

“Our role is to take all of that noise and give clients a clear, personal answer, to tell them, look, we have done the hard work, we are looking after everything in the background, now go and enjoy it.” 

Mr Grieve said making business personal sometimes means being prepared to have conversations that go well beyond investment strategy.  

“That is what making business personal really means: being prepared to have the difficult conversation when the situation calls for it, even when it is uncomfortable.” 

Levi Holdsworth — Private Business and Family Advisory, Pitcher Partners Adelaide

Levi Holdsworth has been appointed as Principal, having spent nearly nine years with the network, progressing through roles in both the Melbourne and Adelaide firms.  

Working with high-net-worth individuals, family offices, entrepreneurial start-ups, and small to medium-sized businesses in industries such as property and hospitality, Mr Holdsworth brings a client base as broad as the advisory challenges they bring him. 

His connection to that client base goes beyond the professional. Growing up as the son of a small business owner, Mr Holdsworth developed an early and grounded understanding of what it genuinely means to run a business, and it is an understanding he carries into every client relationship. 

“My father was fortunate in that we did not experience too many lows, but I understood from watching him that business does not stop at five o’clock,” Mr Holdsworth said.  

“The clients I work with are not clocking off with their employees. They are going home thinking about what tomorrow looks like, whether they can fulfil the next contract and what they need to do to keep things moving. I carry that understanding into every client relationship I have.” 

With the Federal budget generating more client discussion than anything Mr Holdsworth can recall since the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, questions around business structures and trusts in particular are now front of mind for many of the private clients and family businesses he works with. 

“Every conversation I have at the moment, whether with a client or at a networking event, comes back to the budget,” Mr Holdsworth said.  

“For many people, structures that have served them well for years may simply not make financial sense anymore, and they are having to think seriously about what that means. 

“Part of what we are doing right now is helping people make considered decisions without the complete picture, because some of those answers are still months away.” 

Elizabeth Jools — Tax Advisory, Pitcher Partners Sydney

Elizabeth Jools joins the partnership in the Tax Advisory practice at Pitcher Partners Sydney, bringing a background that spans both law and accounting and a career that has taken her from a Big Four firm to the kind of client-centred environment she describes as an entirely different proposition. 

Having studied commerce and law at university and qualified as both a chartered accountant and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of NSW, Ms Jools was drawn to tax precisely because it sat at the intersection of the two disciplines she wanted to pursue. She joined Pitcher Partners in 2015 and has spent the years since building a specialisation in corporate tax with a particular focus on international advisory and compliance, working with multinational groups navigating the complexity of cross-border tax obligations. 

The contrast with her time at a Big Four firm, she says, was immediately apparent when she made the move. 

“When I came across it was like I found my home and my purpose,” Ms Jools said. 

“People were genuine, there was a real personal touch, and you felt it immediately. At a big firm the focus can shift very quickly to revenue, and you lose that culture, but at Pitcher Partners you simply do not.” 

Ms Jools said her personal approach to working with clients was less about grand gestures than about the quality of listening in any given interaction. She said a recent new business meeting clearly illustrated the point. 

“We were talking through all the numbers and the scope, and then we paused and said, hold on, what do you actually want from us?” Ms Jools said.  

“She just started talking, and everything she said from that point drove the entire scope of what we ended up doing together. It is about understanding not just what clients need but what drives them, and then actually listening to the answer.” 

With international clients facing an increasingly demanding compliance environment, Ms Jools said proactive communication had never been a more important point of difference. 

“There has been so much change in the last 12 to 24 months, and our international clients are really leaning on us to help them manage their timetables and stay across what is changing,” Ms Jools said.  

“The stakes are genuinely high, as late lodgement penalties for multinational entities can be very significant, so being front of mind and being proactive has become genuinely valuable to them.” 

Juliana Kee — Tax Advisory, Pitcher Partners Sydney

Juliana Kee’s path to partnership at Pitcher Partners is something we’re particularly proud of.  

Having joined the firm as a cadet straight from school and specifically requested a role in the Tax Advisory team at a time when no position was being actively recruited, Ms Kee has spent her entire career within the practice she asked to join. 

“I was one of the very few cadets who specifically requested a tax role,” Ms Kee said. “I do not think they were necessarily looking at the time, but they interviewed me and here I am.” 

A Chartered Tax Advisor with a Master of Taxation from the University of Sydney, Ms Kee specialises in financial services taxation and mergers and acquisitions advisory, working with listed investment companies, large privately owned companies and managed funds. The decision to pursue tax from the outset was, she says, instinctive rather than calculated, driven by a longstanding interest in the place where commerce and law meet. 

The relationships she has built over that time speak to what making business personal has come to mean to her. Recently returned from parental leave, Ms Kee reflected on the clients who have accompanied her through every milestone of her professional and personal life. 

“I have a client who has marked every milestone with me since I started, from graduating my bachelor’s degree through to my CA, my master’s, getting engaged, getting married and having a baby,” Ms Kee said.  

“Every single time there has been a beautiful acknowledgement of these important milestones. It is rare to be able to say that about a client relationship, but those are the relationships that make this work genuinely special.” 

The appointments of Ms Jools and Ms Kee are also notable in the context of the broader firm, with Pitcher Partners Sydney appointing two partners simultaneously from the same practice area, a reflection of the growth and trajectory of its Tax Advisory team. 

With the proposed tax changes generating significant discussion across virtually every client conversation, Ms Kee said the planning work underway had intensified considerably since her return. 

“Clients are having to think about whether they still want to be investing in property, whether they need to diversify, whether they need to restructure out of their discretionary trusts,” Ms Kee said.  

“We are modelling different scenarios in the background so that when there is more certainty around the legislation, our clients are in the best position to move.” 

Jack Mackintosh — Business Advisory and Assurance, Pitcher Partners Melbourne

Jack Mackintosh has spent the greater part of his career at Pitcher Partners, joining the firm in 2014 and progressing through the ranks to Partner.  

A registered company auditor, business advisor and tax advisor, Mr Mackintosh has always been drawn to the generalist nature of his practice, and the flexibility it gives him to work across both audit and advisory disciplines rather than being confined to a single specialisation. 

That conviction was tested and ultimately strengthened during a period Mr Mackintosh spent in Toronto with a leading mid-tier firm primarily working with large listed clients, an experience that brought the distinctive qualities of the Pitcher Partners environment into sharp focus. 

“What I came to appreciate was the access we have here, to partners who sit alongside us, who are the decision makers and who have genuine skin in the game, and the fact that our clients are built the same way,” Mr Mackintosh said.  

“When you are speaking with someone who has built a business, who owns it and who is accountable for every decision it involves, the conversation is entirely different. I came back with a much clearer sense of why this is my environment.” 

In his day-to-day work, Mr Mackintosh is particularly focused on helping clients navigate the growing complexity of the technology and sustainability landscapes. 

The latter, he notes, is placing an unfamiliar burden on finance leaders who are being asked to step well outside their traditional remit. 

“You have CFOs who are now responsible for environment and sustainability reporting and who have genuinely never had to think about this before,” Mr Mackintosh said. 

“Many of them would rather not have to, and they are looking for someone to sit with them and explain what it means for their business in terms they can actually work with. 

“That is where the role becomes almost one of companionship. You are not always there with a definitive answer, because sometimes there is not one, but you are there to help someone frame the problem and find a way through it.” 

Alex Pollock — Corporate Finance, Pitcher Partners Brisbane

Alex Pollock began his career in audit, spending eight years in that discipline before transitioning to corporate finance after an early and formative exposure to transaction work that convinced him this was where his interests lay. 

Now a Partner in the Corporate Finance practice at Pitcher Partners Brisbane, Mr Pollock advises clients across the full spectrum of buy-side and sell-side activity, from ASX listed and private equity backed corporates conducting due diligence on acquisition targets through to founder-led businesses preparing for or managing the sale of an enterprise they have spent decades building. 

It is on the sell-side, and in the particular dynamics of the relationship between a founder and a prospective acquirer, where Mr Pollock finds some of the most consequential work his practice involves. 

“Large corporates and private equity firms are data-driven decision makers, whereas many business owners in the mid-market we work with operate largely on gut feel, because they have run their business long enough to know instinctively how it should look and how it should run,” Mr Pollock said.  

“What you are doing is bridging a real asymmetry of experience in the way an owner runs their business. All of that knowledge may be sitting in one person’s head, and the challenge is getting it out on paper and into a form that gives a buyer genuine confidence in the ongoing risks and returns of the business.” 

With economic and geopolitical uncertainty adding further complexity to an already demanding environment, Mr Pollock said the emphasis on preparation had never been more important for business owners considering a transaction. 

“There is a great deal in business that an owner simply cannot control, but the level of preparation is something they can,” Mr Pollock said.  

“There is a strong focus in our team here in Brisbane on working with private clients who are a few years away from a transaction to make sure they are as well prepared as possible when an offer arrives, because that preparation genuinely moves the needle.” 

Across five practice areas and five cities, the appointments reflect Pitcher Partners’ commitment to developing professionals who understand that the most valuable thing an advisor can offer goes well beyond technical expertise, extending to a genuine and personal engagement with the challenges, opportunities and concerns that matter most to the people and businesses they serve.